I know you think we have free will, Prim, and most people go about their daily lives believing that they have freedom of choice.
I'm in the minority here. I believe in conditional free will. Or, in philosophical nomenclature , Compatibilism. (David Hume)
Quote: There certainly have been times when people have simply chosen one course of action over another. My point is that they did have choice, even though we now know the outcome
What I am saying is .... a single choice that any one of us might make is determined by many previous choices ... each one reaching back into a causal chain ... there are no random expressions of free will. Each action can be linked to what we are and the way we think ... which is itself determined by genetics, enviroment and events we experience. Nature and Nuture. Now this does not mean that there is only one choice for any given moment. There are undoubtedly more than one. But all of those choices are a link in a continuous chain.
Had I but full knowledge and understanding of who and what you are I would be able to predict your actions. But of course, I do not. I barely have full knowledge of what I am.